Mick Clifford: Public deserves to know the unvarnished truth on Bord Pleanála scandals
The past hasn’t gone away. If confidence is to be fully restored in the board, and safeguards constructed to ensure no repeat of what happened, the unvarnished truth has to emerge.
There is a trend with scandals or major controversies in this country.
The matter explodes into the public domain and much political and media hand-wringing ensues. Changes will be made, we are told, that will ensure the unacceptable will no longer be allowed to prevail. The matter at hand itself is hived off to one or other sort of an inquiry.
Thereafter, as far as the matter is concerned, the past is a different country, from which the public are excluded.
Occasionally, a few years later, the results of the inquiry do emerge. By then, the political caravan has moved on and we’re told that oul stuff is all over there in the past, disappearing through the mists of time. Move on, nothing more to see here.
In 2022, there were a series of high-profile allegations about malpractice in An Bord Pleanála. It started with a problem over the deputy chair Paul Hyde sitting in judgment of an application for housing that bordered land in which he was a part-owner.
Over the following months, it emerged this was just one of a number of allegations of malpractice that undermined the board’s long-earned reputation as a neutral arbiter on planning matters. Coming in the midst of a housing crisis, this was deadly serious.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien ordered an inquiry by senior counsel Remy Farrell. He duly reported but his report was not published. Mr Hyde resigned and was subsequently prosecuted for failing to declare interests.
Internally, a review of 300 cases was ordered by the chair Dave Walsh, to be conducted by three senior management figures.
The review, details of which were published in the , was damning. The fact the review was conducted internally enhanced the status of its final report.
More often than not, internal inquiries will veer towards the benign or even whitewashed explanations for what happened and who might be culpable. Yet here, the truth appeared to be laid out, unvarnished and relatively complete.
Despite that, another inquiry was ordered which bore all the signs of going over the same ground the internal review had travelled. Whether by accident or design, one inevitable outcome of such a course of action would be to put off the dreaded day when the truth might finally emerge.
That day is here now. The report by senior counsel Lorna Lynch has been delivered to the chair of An Bord Pleanála Peter Mullan. The report was delayed and the understands this delay was attributable to objections and threats of legal action from some of those inquired into.
A statement from An Bord Pleanála said Mr Mullan will “take time to fully consider the contents before taking any further step on the matter”.
Such consideration is entirely appropriate. However, once it is concluded, there is an overwhelming case to have the report published. If necessary, redact anything likely to present a legal issue but there should be no hiding behind legal advice as an excuse to keep it from the public.
The past hasn’t gone away. If confidence is to be fully restored in the board, and safeguards constructed to ensure no repeat of what happened, the unvarnished truth has to emerge.
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